Sunday, October 04, 2009

As Vin would say: A modest thing, but thine own. The Dodgers crafted a two-game win streak to give them a little momentum heading into the playoffs, scoring four in the first inning and making it stand up. Vicente Padilla made his case for the post-season by doing his best Clayton Kershaw imitation, striking out ten, including the first five batters of the game. The Dodgers' bullpen notched seven more strikeouts after that, and now we sit on our hands for two days.

The 2009 Dodgers finish the regular season at 95-67, in first place in the NL West, and with the NL's best record. And Dodger fans did their team proud, with the Dodgers' regular-season attendance of 3,761,655 edging out the Yankees' 3,748,057 for most in the majors.

On to the playoffs! Game 1 vs. the Cardinals is Wednesday at 6:37 p.m. PT. Rest up, Dodger fans!

All the regular season games are in the can now, folks. Here's to all the participants. And here's to a great upcoming post-season. Props to those who may have played their last game, and good luck to those who will rise to take their place next season. Mostly, here's to a beautiful game that has given us such pleasure since the early spring.

Huge shout out to Ken Griffey, Jr. if this is his last hurrah. In addition to being one of the best players of our time, or any time, he has always been a class act. The game and its fans have benefited from his career. And as discussed in the GTR earlier, Junior is responsible for the huge leaps that MLB has made in both honoring the life and contributions of Mr. Jackie Robinson and in re-invigorating its efforts to recognize African-Americans' contributions to baseball and encouraging more African-Americans to get involved in baseball.

Sitting on my back patio enjoying a gorgeous fall afternoon in Pasadena, CA, USA. Life is good, and I'm thankful for it.

However, the first pile of shit caller to post-game show just pissed the shit out of me. Dude said "What happened to fan appreciation day?" and when challenged, he had a beef that they only gave away one car and one TV. Damn stupid people. Personally, I'd rather Dodgers spend the money on starting pitching cause I've already got a fucking TV and car. Generation X me - me - me - me.

Dreading but also looking forward to the discussion thread re: who makes the post-season roster. Have been sitting around mapping out who makes (and who doesn't) the post-season roster. My initial take is that among Thome, Loretta, and Eye Chart, someone is going to be very disappointed.*

*Assuming Belly#2 is healthy or can be healthy very soon/during the NLDS.

Can we start the GT for Wednesday now? I'm that consumed, at this point.

We all know that we have the best game caller in Vinny without question. But you know, the post-game fellas (Levine and Suchon) have to be the best g.d. guys in that role in baseball. I'm always made smarter or made to think about something a different way after listening to them. Which I still am, BTW. 5:58 PM on this Sunday. Some do an intervention!

Possible good news coming down the pike...the game on Wednesday may be @ 3:30 not 6:30 Best Coast time. So then I really would have an excuse to ask off a good bit of work for that day, instead having a huge breakfast burrito at Lucky Boy of Pasadena and then a trip to Short Stop to build up a good foundation.

Finishing off the weekend by watching the FOX Prime Ticket post-game from last night. Was touched to note I could see myself at the field-side celebration when Bison and Walk-off came by. I was standing just behind the True Blue Tattoo dude (who is cool as hell, BTW).

I have to transfer this from Tivo to my Mac so I can edit it and keep it for posterity. That's my homework for the week.

Watching more of the locker room celebration stuff from last night. Note that during and right after JLo's interview, one can easily distinguish Bob Marley's anthemic "Redemption Song" being played in the background. Were we prescient the other night or what when the Sons sported a Reggae-themed GT and many of us included references, including "Redemption Song," in our GT posts?

I don't know about afternoon games. While they used to be the norm, they just feel strange now. I remember last year when FOX had Game 2 of the NLCS at one o'clock, and could barely follow it. By the time I got home, all I could see was Victorino rob Blake of at least a double. It was all a blur after that.